Thoughts on rationalism and the rationalist community from a skeptical perspective. The author rejects rationality in the sense that he believes it isn't a logically coherent concept, that the larger rationalism community is insufficiently critical of it's beliefs and that ELIEZER YUDKOWSKY IS NOT THE TRUE CALIF.

Social Sciences

Category: SciFi

TruePath21st March 2018

Or Why The Heros In Timeless Are Idiots

I just finished the first season of Timeless and I can’t help but feel the characters, and especially Lucy, are being irrational. (Some spoilers but only serious spoiler is in bullet 3 at the very end).

What they know about Rittenhouse is that every generation is initially totally horrified and appalled at the thought of it, wishes it was destroyed and eventually comes to see it as important and necessary once they have sufficient time to think and evaluate the evidence yet this gives them no pause as to whether they themselves might be in the wrong.

Indeed, the only defensible reason to be an ardent support of a democratic system is that the evidence of the past few centuries makes a super strong case that democracies are good places to live and produce far more utilities than dictatorships but if you found out that US had secretly been an oligarchy the whole time the evidence would actually point the other way and suggest skepticism of non-oligarchical rule (or well influence).

The show writers try hard to make sure we see Rittenhous as evil by making hereditary and talking about good strong bloodlines but once you’ve decided on a dictatorial system (or I guess technically a very small oligarchy) hereditary rule is probably not merely desirable but a necessity as otherwise the subsequent set of rulers will conflict with the children of the last. By having 50+ members they can smooth out the ups and downs of monarchical hereditary rule and even work expel the less able members creating positive selection pressure. As far as being from ‘good families’ well every government needs a mythos to legitimize themselves and inspire its members even if its small.

As far as the supposed bad acts that Rittenhouse is supposed to have committed in the show I have three comments.

Those bad acts actually pale beside the genuine injustices and horrors the legitimate democratic government of our country committed at the same times. I mean WWI was basically a pointless slaughter of 400k US soldiers or more then there are thinks like Tuskeege, Japanese detentions etc.. etc..

Even the recent ‘bad acts’ like killing Flynn’s family in the name of some kind of national necessity (or was it just impunity by some elements) doesn’t seem out of line compared to the (IMO often justified) use of drone strikes even given the occasional civilian casualties to protect our national interest. If that’s the price we have to pay to get the kind of America we have then it doesn’t seem particularly large.

Especially when you compare that to the acts taken by the supposedly misguided but ultimately forgivable/noble Flynn in his campaign against them including attempts to assist nazis, commit massive terrorism with huge death tolls etc…

Rittenhouse is (as I understand the extent of its power) is essentially analogous to the UK house of lords before the reforms which made almost all the positions non-hereditary and let commons pass laws without approval from lords after a 2 then 1 year wait. That always seemed like a pretty good system to me…focus and primary power reflects the people but you essentially (modulo a bit of self-interest) also have to convince a bunch of rando professional legislators who don’t have to please constituents.

But even if Rittenhouse isn’t great at the moment at the end of the season Lucy has cleaned out all the old power structure and is basically being offered the keys to the kingdom. It’s totally irrational for her not just to accept and try and use that power to make the world a better place and turn Rittenhouse into a force for good.